Voyager 1 is back online 15 billion miles away in interstellar space. But the end could be near
NASA engineers have successfully restored contact with Voyager 1 and the spacecraft is operating normally after its dwindling power supply caused a weekslong blackout.
The issue began in October when the aging probe automatically switched from its primary X-band radio transmitter and began relying on a much weaker S-band radio transmitter to communicate with its mission team on Earth. The farthest spacecraft from Earth, Voyager 1 is currently exploring uncharted territory about 15.4 billion miles (24.9 billion kilometers) away.
The probe autonomously made the transmitter swap when its computer determined that Voyager I had too little power after the mission team sent a command to turn on one of its heaters.
